Coin lock



Feb. 6, 1923. 1,4443253.

w. c. BUCKNAM.

COIN LOCK.

FILED JULY 17, |920.

INVEN TOR A770 EY oh. 5, ltl.

WETHY CHANNING BUCKNAE,

OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNLIENTS, TO DAVIS AUTOMATIC EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK,

N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

COIN

Application filed July 17,

To aZZ 'who/nt 'it' may concer'n:

Be it known that VVoR'ri-IY O. BUOKNAM, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Jersey City, in the county oit Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Coin Lock, of which the following is a specification.

rllhis inyention has to do with coin-controlled looks for public lockers. These looks are operable 'to look the locker upon deposit of a coin; and the key is locked in the lock, against removal, when the locker is unlocated, and is reinovable only in the locked condition. A detent, blocking' or looking` device cooperating with the bolt to hold it in the retracted condition, or against inovement from the unlocked to the looking position, is displaceable to permit looking, through the agency ot the coin. lWhen the user wishes to take out his belongings checked in the locker he does so by use of the key, and the detent then acts to prevent relooking of the door and to lock the key in place, until another coin is deposited. There is necessarily a `n'ap between the door and frame, or between the bolt and its keeper in the unlocked condition, which will Vary soinewhat in different lockers; and through accident or design the bolt may be retracted sui'liciently to clear its keeper and the door opened without the bolt being caught. In this way the locker can be used again without introducing' another coin, or, which is more serious, the locker inay be left open with the bolt projected and the key removable, so that the key may be lost or stolen, loss of the key i'iecessitatin;Y replacement of the lock, or, if this should not occur, an intendinp' user of the locker depositing a coin while the bolt is protracted with the door standing open would lose his coin. The object of the invention is to overcoine these difiiculties; which is aocomplished by the provision of means whereby the lock is caughtagainst relocking` when the bolt is partially retracted; hence, if at this point the door can be opened, the lock cannot be relocked without deposit of another coin. nor can the key be removed by a mischievous person. In the simple and preferred einbodiment of the invention, the detent is forined with primary and secondary holdingr Shoulders opposing looking movement of the bolt7 the primary shoulder holding or confining the bolt in the proper LOOK.

1920. Serial NO. 395,918.

unlocked condition, and the secondary shoulder being positioned to restrain it when partia-lly retracted.

The invention is inore particularly concerned with a type of lock in which the bolt is shot by a spring and held by direct engagenient with a detent, which is displaceable by a knob-operated coin-motor, and in which the bolt is retracted by a key-operated key-cylinder, as more fully set forth heroinafter; but various modifioations will suggest theinselves to the inechanic skilled in the art.

In the accompanying drawings torining` a part hereof:

Fignre 1 is a front elevation of the lock,

the unlocked condition;

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation thereof, indicating in dotted lines a coin just seated in the pocket of the coin-disk;

Fig. 3 is a rear elevation illustrating the looking' condition, the cover of the coin-disk casino; being' reinoved, and the coin having just displaced the detent and being! about to drop out of the coin-disk, as indicated in dotted lines; and

Fig. 4; is a rear elevation illustrating' the bolt caught in partly retracted condition.

The general lock construction in which the present invention is shown embodied forms the subject-matter of a separate application, Serial No. 392118, filed July 17. 1920, in which the present applicant is oint inventor with another.

The front plate or'escutcheon 1 has a knob 2, a coin-entrance 3 and the key-slot end of a key-cylinder 4 on its outer side. This keycylinder and its cylinder-casingconstitntc a well-known form of lock unit, containing turnbler arrangeinents whereby the key can be reinoved in the looking condition only, and is locked. in the look by the tumblers when the lock is open. These niatters being faniiliar require no illustration.

swinging bolt 8 is pivoted at 11, and is projected by a spring 17. The bit 14 of the kar-cylinder cooperates with a recess or socket in the rear portion of the bolt. A bell-crank detent is pivoted at 19 and its rearwardly extending arm is formed with a primary holding" shoulder 21. which cooperates with a projection on the bolt to hold the latter in its fully retracted condition, the' detent having' a spring 24 whereby it engages automatically.

The contact extremity of the downwardly extendingVV arm 26 o f the detent .is arranged to be encountered by a coin a carried by a rotary coin-disk 30 having an eccentric coinpocket 31. The diskis connected to ,the knob 2 on the outside, and receives the coin 'from a coin-drop 29 on the inside leading;` from the coin-entrance 3.

lVhen the detent is displaced through Lthe deposit of a coin and the turning of the knob, the bolt is freed to move to its looking 01' projected position. The key-cylinder ,being connected with the bolt is also moved to the position in which the key can be removed by the user, to constitute his check. VVhen he' wishes to regain his property he inserts the key and turns it in the unlocking' direction, thereby retracting the bolt, which is caught and held by the detent, the key being thereby locked in the cylinder until the next checking` operation.

According` to the present invention, secondary holding or detent means is provided which engages with the lock vmechanism before the bolt is completely retracted. This is most simply accomplished by forming the main detent, such as the detent '18, with a shoulder 21a slightly in advance of, the shoulder 21. This shoulder engag'es the boltproject-ion 23 when the bolt is partly retracted, and prevents. it returning or being returned in vthe looking direction, without the deposit of another coin. Thus even though it may be possible to open the door of the locker With the bolt in the incompletely retracted condition of Fig. 4;, the key will not be left free in the lock, nor can the user obtain a second checking service on the same coin. The invention is not necessarily limited to two shoulders or successive detents, since more may be einployed, and the cooperating elements may, of course, be re- Versed.

The invention also prevents false operation of the counter 7, with which these locks are provided, and which in the particular construction illustrated is operated from the detent through a'link 22a.

Vhat I claim as new is:

1. In a coin-controlled lock for public lockers, the combination of a bolt, a detent preventing,` movement of the bolt from fully retracted to looking position, coin-controlled means for freeing the bolt from said detent so that the bolt may be projected, key mechajnism arranged to retra-ct the bolt, said key mechanism permitting removal of the key only in the locking condition of the bolt, and means whereby the bolt is automatically caught against relocking When the bolt is only partially retracted, in order that loss of the key may be prevented.

2. ln a coin-controlled lock for public lockers, the combination of a spring-shot bolt, a spring-actuated detent, having a plurality of holding Shoulders adapted to en- ,oj-age and hold the bolt successively against looking moyement under the action of its spring, said detent normally restraining the bolt against movemelit under the action of its spring, a knob-operated coin-mover fol` displacing said detent, and key-operated means for retracting the bolt, said key-operated means being adapted to permit removal of the key only in the looking condition of the bolt.

woRTi-IY CHANNING BUCKNAM. 

